Several hundred people were denied entry into this year’s Durango High School graduation ceremony as a result of capacity limits, leading to heated exchanges and disappointed family members.
To make matters worse, those turned away and others hoping to watch the ceremony via livestream missed out on the celebration when the livestream crashed.
A record-number of attendees – about 3,600 people, the district estimated – showed up to DHS football stadium, where only 3,400 could be granted entry because of fire code capacity limits, said district spokeswoman Karla Sluis.
Sluis said the unexpectedly large turnout was “at the root of the challenges we experienced.”
Superintendent Karen Cheser and DHS Principal Jon Hoerl publicly apologized in an email sent to families Thursday. The district also apologized on social media.
“We want to sincerely apologize to the families and guests who experienced frustration and disappointment during the May 22 graduation ceremony,” the email read. “We ... know some guests were unable to enter the stadium after capacity was reached, while others were impacted by the livestream’s WiFi failure. We understand how upsetting that was, especially for families and friends who traveled to celebrate this important milestone.”
Kim Woodson, whose youngest son graduated this year, called the ceremony a “disaster” and a “free for all.”
There was no ticket system; seating was first come, first served; and families were not adequately warned about potential capacity issues, she said. Attendees were told to arrive at 4:30 p.m., and capacity was reached by 5:15 p.m., ahead of the 6 p.m. ceremony, she said.
Sluis said the district warned families about limited parking and encouraged attendees to arrive at 4:30 p.m.
“We ... know that some attendees arrived much closer to the start of the ceremony, at a time when attendance had already exceeded expectations,” she said.
Woodson said she and her party arrived at 4 p.m., parked and briefly left to get food before returning to find attendees already being turned away.
Desperate parents and loved ones crowded around the fence lining the football field during the ceremony, hoping to catch a glimpse of their graduate or convince a security guard to let them in, Woodson said. The crowd grew rowdy at times.
One attendee threatened and yelled at security guards, Woodson said, and some security guards were allegedly screaming at attendees. Members of the Durango Police Department and the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office were present to help with crowd control, she said.
“It was honestly just a really awful experience,” she said. “... It was something you would expect at a sold-out concert or something – not at a high school graduation.”
Durango Police Department spokesperson Amanda Garrison said officers estimated 500 to 600 people were outside the stadium at one point, and said a “small number” of people were especially upset about being denied entry.
A man who had several children in tow was yelling at district staff members and DPD officers at several entrances while trying to gain entry, and a woman made “threatening statements” and repeatedly called 911 about the situation, Garrison said. Officers were able to de-escalate both incidents, and no arrests were made in either case, she said.
“Regarding whether officers yelled at attendees, the situation was loud, crowded and emotionally charged,” Garrison said. “Officers may have raised their voices at times to be heard over the crowd or to give clear directions, but that is different from yelling at attendees in an inappropriate manner.”
The district said the capacity limit set by the fire marshal had to be observed for safety reasons.
“That number is determined by emergency safety codes and the number of available exits in the facility – specifically, how many people could safely and quickly evacuate in the event of an emergency,” a district statement read. “Once that limit was reached, additional guests could not legally be admitted, regardless of whether open seats still appeared to be available.”
Resident Cecelia Evans ended up watching what could be seen of the ceremony from the parking lot with other attendees who didn’t make the capacity cut. She said security was “guarding the place like it was Fort Knox.”
“There were parents and grandparents, (and) someone in a wheelchair (sitting in the parking lot),” she wrote in an email to The Durango Herald. “It was just devastating. … My friend’s son who was graduating had his grandparents there and THEY were outside the gates. I just wanted to cry. They were so, so sad! Rightfully so. And there was nothing that could be done about it. A day that should have been one of the greatest memories for many turned into being a complete disaster.”
Parent Vickie Graff, along with her wife and her two other children, were able to watch her son graduate – but her son’s grandparents were denied entry and struggled to catch a glimpse of the ceremony from outside the fence.
“They were pretty devastated, honestly,” Graff said. “My father in law, he’s not a very social person. He never really goes to any other things, and he was really looking forward to seeing his oldest grandson graduate, and they couldn’t even hear them call his name.”
Woodson, her husband and her older son were eventually able to enter the venue after three people gave up their spots to allow the family to enter. Woodson’s 80-year-old father, who drove from Los Angeles to attend the graduation, and her mother-in-law, were both unable to make it into the stadium.
Woodson’s mother, who was out of town at the time of the ceremony, was one of many unable to tune in virtually because of the broken livestream.
Woodson said her older son graduated from DHS in 2024, and no similar issues occurred at the ceremony. She believes better planning could have prevented the chaos.
“They could have easily anticipated this issue and done a priority ticket system or held the graduation elsewhere, but they didn't,” she said. ”... It’s not like the high school doesn’t know how many students are graduating. It’s not like they don’t know what the capacity is, because it’s set ahead of time.”
Sluis said district and school leaders met after the ceremony to review what occurred and to identify improvements for next year, and that a ticketing system is one of several options being considered.
“Our goal is to find the best balance between accessibility, family participation, safety requirements and the realities of a growing event,” she said.
In the email to families, the district promised to pursue several additional measures to avoid a repeat situation at future graduations, including increasing stadium seating capacity by 400, if safety requirements allow; livestreaming the event in the gymnasium and using the space as an overflow section; increasing the school’s Wi-Fi bandwidth from 1 gigabit per second to 10 gigabits; and being more proactive about communicating the logistics of the event to families and community members ahead of time.
“Graduation should be a joyful experience for every family,” the email read. “While we cannot change what happened this year, we can learn from it and make improvements. We appreciate the feedback, patience, and grace many families have shown as we work through this together.”
epond@durangoherald.com
